In the creation of animated productions such as movies, a line sketch of a subject, such as, for example, a cartoon character, is made on a transparent, plastic film and the backside of the film is painted to color the character. Several different, separate individual films are employed with the character changing posture or position from one film to the next. Individually painted films are placed over a sheet displaying a background scene for the character. Typically, the background scene is printed and remains the same for a number of different postures or positions of the character. The character may be, for example, a cartoon of a human being, an animal such as a dog or a cat, plants such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, or other types of vegetation, or even mechanical or structural objects such as automobiles and buildings. Virtually anything may be the subject of animation art.
In making an animated movie, each assembled film and background sheet constitutes a different frame of the movie. The individual films are assembled one by one on individual sheets bearing the identical printed background scene to produce a series of individual drawing showing the character in the context of a selected background. It may be desirable to change the background as the position of the character changes. These individual drawings are arranged in a predetermined sequence that represent the character moving in a step-wise fashion frame by frame from one posture or position to another posture or position. Thus, when one rapidly flips through the drawings arranged in the correct sequence, one sees the character continuously moving rather than as a series of individual frames. With the advent of computers, much of this artwork is now produced by computers rather than hand drawing and hand painting. Nevertheless, such hand-painted art is in many ways more desirable than art created by computers. Such a hand-painted transparent film mounted on a support sheet having a printed background picture thereon is a beautiful work of art suitable for framing and displaying in one's home or office.
It would be advantageous, from an instructional point of view, to provide a series of such hand-painted works of art in a cost-effective way, particularly to children who could then be taught how cartoon characters are animated in movies.